Agile Principles

I often say that you can't do the dance if you don't feel the music.

In a discussion list now, there is a heated discussion about the principles that underlie Scrum. I hope no one hurts themselves. By which I mean to jest that we often have the biggest fights about abstract things ... about which we want, or at least tend, to disagree.

About concrete facts that all can see with their own eyes, it is harder to have arguments.

OK. Here are some principles that I see at play in Lean-Agile and in Scrum. Part of the fun of putting this list out there is the hope and expectation that you will discover for me yet better ways of expressing these or other principles at work. My list was done hastily, so you are welcome to complain. Also.

A quick list....
* all work-in-process is waste (and we want to eliminate as much of it as we can possibly imagine)
* two heads are better than one; three are better than two
* with our work, the productivity of the individual is fairly meaningless (no individual alone can produce the product); the productivity of a small group is meaningful
* bad news does not get better with age
* truth and love are the true foundation
* how hard we work is not important; what is important is making a few people's lives better
* we have failures in communication all the time; the problem is to identify the biggest ones as fast as possible, and correct them quickly
* the best way to communicate about this very abstract work is to make it as concrete as possible. And then get as full and direct feedback as we can bear.
* in theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. Yogi Berra. One Meaning: In our minds all our ideas seems to work. In practice we all always see many mistakes and problems.
* knowledge creation is what it's all about
* "There are many things one doesn’t understand, and therefore we ask them: why don’t you just go ahead and take action; try to do something?" Fujio Cho.
* You learn fastest by small mistakes.
* Where there is no vision, the people perish. Proverbs.
* People are remarkably good at doing what they want to do. (Little's Second Law)
* I know it when I see it. Judge Potter Stewart.
* How does a project get one year late? One day at a time. Fred Brooks.
* You don't need to motivate them. You need to get the de-motivators out of the way.
* People work best when allowed to make small promises.
* Don't over-stress the system (the team).
* Because business and technology decisions are inter-dependent, business people and technologists must work together daily.
* There will never come a day when there are no impediments. We can always improve. We must work on the biggest impediment each day.
* "Depend upon it sir; the prospect of being hanged in a fortnight concentrates the mind wonderfully." Samuel Johnson.
* To predict is difficult, particularly of the future. (A Chinese proverb?)
* We are organic, transient animals. We are not machines nor are we constructs of the mind.
* There is a lot of variation amongst and between individuals. And perhaps more so amongst and between teams.
* Man is "a being darkly wise and rudely great". (Alex. Pope) Of a mixed nature. None of us will be perfect soon.
* Micro-managing workers never helps. A bit of coaching might help some.
* Pretending to be more productive by lowering quality is just pretending.

Your comments?

Ready to listen?

From Catherine Louis:

I'm getting ready for a 4 day training session in Mt. Hood Oregon, teaching new handlers how to work with their K9's towards becoming an operational Search and Rescue team.

One of the "ahaaa!" moments in training is teaching the handlers how not to ignore the K9's innate behavior. One very small example of this what I will call the K9 "shake off". Everyone has seen a wet or dirty dog do the crazy "shake off" and peel around the house at Mach III. Here's a video from Discovery as one example. Or this one of a bulldog, also quite entertaining with all the extra skin.

Doesn't that look amazing? Like it feels great? It is as if they walk through an imaginary wall from one state of mind to the next, twisting their way through the wall.

We don't have a distinct human equivalent of the shake-off, it's much harder to see in humans (stretching by the coffee machine tends to be the common one I see.) A Hapkido kick in the hall is another one that I've seen.

There is an important reason to look for the "shake-off" equivalent in your Agile teams.

Dogs don't only perform this shake because their fur is unkempt. In searching, most dogs, upon making a "find", will do a shake-off. There are a lot of theories why it happens. My take on this: there's a lot of tension and stress in searching. Upon making the "find", the dog can come down off of any adrenaline, and "shake off" all tension and stress. It indicates the dog is has shifted gears, and is in a different emotional state. If I'm training a new dog, I make it happen: ruffle the fur in the opposite direction, the dog will shake the fur back in place, with the side effect of the dog being relaxed and responsive and ready to learn something new.

Search dogs wear a bell while searching. Searching at night you may not see the K9, but if you tune your ears to the bell, you'll hear the constant and regular bell chimes while the dog is searching, then a silent bell when the dog makes the "find", and a loud RINGGADINGGADINGGADINGGA when the dog performs the shake-off. Many new handlers working night problems don't have their ears trained for this and miss out on learning that their dog had actually found the lost subject. The dog post-shake-off, then immediately moves into a thinking and responding state, may appear very calm and approach the handler as if to say "well that's over, what's next?"

The corollary to this is one we've all experienced: when you hear someone say "she's not ready to listen", or "she's listening, but he's not hearing", the person needs room for a shake-off before having the conversation.

It's a huge clue in K9 searching, and if you can notice the "shake offs" in human form, it's also a huge clue to how the team is really doing. As a leader, if you're able to communicate with the teams in "post shake-off" state, you've got yourself an unbelievable opportunity to hear their challenges, and to communicate your business challenges, as humans will have moved into a relaxed, thinking and responding state.

The first challenge you have is to look for what the shake-off is in your team. If you don't have it, make it happen. It can be as simple as hanging out by the coffee machine and do some stretches, make spaghetti arms twisting your spine. Tell folks you're shaking off and from what. After you're done, check your mood and theirs. They may think you're crazy the first couple of times, then after a couple of days you'll have them all doing spaghetti arm stretches.

And because we might be a bit more complex than dogs, you have to ask the team members what their shake-off equivalent is. Perhaps plan your shake-offs outside the office, and remember to enjoy the shake-off with them, and if you think about it, share back the results.

---by Catherine Louis

The doctrine of sufficiency

Agile and Scrum start with the assumption that a team is sufficient for the task set before it.

This is a bit wacky unless we allow the truth, which is that humans are very inventive.

Thus, a given 7-member Scrum team can do many things to gain success:
* change the team
* get other impediments removed
* work with the Product Owner and maybe customers to redefine what is wanted

Etc, etc.

So, the idea is only common sense. By yourself, you have some power but it is limited. But 7 people, believing in themselves, can do almost anything. If they believe in themselves, they can be almost irresistible. They can reinforce each others' resolve. They can find new resources. They can redefine the problem.

Now, is every team always irresistible? No, not if they do not believe in their mission.

So, Agile and Scrum presume that the doctrine of sufficiency applies. It does not assert that that must always be true, but rather that that is the best going-in assumption.

They assume that by taking action, we can make our lives better. Rather positive, no?